Privacy Policy | RelicDB

1. What this covers

This policy describes how Eko Wave LLC, based in New York, United States, collects, uses, and shares personal information when operating RelicDB, and the choices available to you. It covers visitors, account holders, contributors, people who send reports or contact us, and people described or depicted in the catalog, whether or not they have a RelicDB account.

2. What we collect

We receive information you provide, technical information generated when you use RelicDB, and catalog information supplied by contributors and other sources.

Account and profile data — your username, email address, password (stored hashed), uploaded avatar, account creation date, and preferences such as theme, collection settings, attribution, and profile visibility. We don't ask for your real name; your username doesn't need to identify you.
Security and agreement records — information used to maintain sessions and recover your account, and timestamps recording acceptance of our terms and privacy policy. If you use two-factor authentication or API access, we also store the associated setup and recovery information, API tokens, permissions, and token creation and last-use records.
Catalog contributions — every suggestion you submit, including drafts, proposed changes, notes, citations, and the previous values needed to record changes. We also record the submitting account, submission and review dates, decisions, and reviewer feedback. These submission records are separate from the catalog content that results from accepted changes.
Catalog images and upload information — images you submit and their source, attribution, licensing information, upload dates, and association with your account. Uploaded files, including avatars and collection-import files, also have information such as their original filename, file type, and size. Files may contain personal information in their contents or metadata.
Collections, want lists, and other lists — the items you own or want, quantities, conditions, grading and certification details, acquisition dates, prices paid or maximum prices, priorities, storage locations, provenance, and notes you record. We also store list names, descriptions, membership, settings, and smart list criteria, and calculate collection progress. Collection data is private by default; public want lists and smart want lists share selected information as described under "Public identity and privacy settings" below.
Collection imports — the files you upload to import a collection, their contents, the selected source, processing status, and results such as matched items, unmatched rows, and errors. Import files and results are kept separately from the collection entries created by an import.
Problem reports and correspondence — report categories, the content being reported, details you provide, support or privacy-request messages, contact information you supply, and our responses and resolution notes. Reports can be filed without an account. Each report also records the request's IP address and browser user-agent, and your account if you are signed in.
Technical logs — standard web server request logs (IP, URL, timestamp) kept for security and debugging.

Information about people in the catalog. Catalog records can include names and aliases, birth dates, country of origin, professional roles, affiliations, and biographical details, as well as names or likenesses appearing in collectible images and creator or image credits. This information may come from contributors, catalog data providers, published reference sources, or the collectibles themselves, rather than directly from the person concerned. Information from public sources can still be personal information. You do not need an account to request a correction or raise a privacy concern; see "Privacy requests" below.

3. Cookies

RelicDB uses first-party cookies for your session and, if you choose it, remember-me. Marketplace listings shown on RelicDB may include images loaded from third-party servers, as described under "Sharing" below.

4. How we use data

Provide account and collection features — authenticate you, maintain your settings, process imports, organize your collection and lists, and calculate progress and matches.
Maintain the catalog — review and apply contributions, verify and correct information, display catalog records and images, provide attribution, and preserve the history needed to understand changes.
Communicate and respond — send account and service messages, including contribution-review notifications, answer support questions, and handle correction, privacy, and copyright requests.
Protect and operate RelicDB — troubleshoot errors, enforce rate limits and our terms, investigate reports and abuse, maintain security, record agreement acceptance, and meet applicable legal obligations.

5. Public identity and privacy settings

Your username is how you appear publicly; it doesn't need to be your real name. New accounts start with a Public profile and public edit credit turned on. Profile visibility and edit credit are separate controls in your privacy settings.

Public profile — anyone can see your username, avatar, membership date, contribution statistics, and lists you have made public. Your profile is eligible for the contributor directory once you have an accepted edit.
Hidden profile — shows the same information as a Public profile to anyone who visits its link, but is excluded from the contributor directory. The profile can still be linked from catalog credits or public lists; Hidden does not make it inaccessible or guarantee that search engines will not find it.
Private profile — excluded from the contributor directory and hides contribution statistics and the lists section on your profile. Anyone who visits your profile link can still see your username, avatar, and membership date.

Public edit credit. Turning off "Credit my edits publicly" removes your username and profile link from contributor credits on catalog pages, including for past accepted edits. It does not hide your profile, remove a Public profile from the contributor directory, hide your contribution statistics, or change list sharing. Choosing Hidden or Private does not turn off edit credit; change both settings if you want both effects.

List sharing. Each want list, including a smart want list, has its own visibility setting. A public list remains accessible through its own link and displays your username even when your profile is Hidden or Private or edit credit is off. Smart lists can also show items you have or need and your completion progress. Item notes, priorities, and prices are not shown on those public list pages. Set each list to Private to stop sharing it.

These settings control public display, not the account information available to administrators. They do not remove identifying information you include in content or erase copies already saved by other people or search engines. Account deletion and requests to remove personal information are described below.

6. Sharing

We don't sell personal data. Access depends on the information and how it is used:

Public information. Published catalog records and images, including information about people and source or image credits, can be viewed by anyone. Profiles, contributor credits, and public lists display information according to the settings and limitations explained in section 5.
Contribution history and review feedback. Your individual submission records, including drafts, notes, citations, and review feedback, are available to you and administrators through the contribution tools. These records are not a public activity feed. Accepted changes can appear in the public catalog, and contributor credits follow your attribution setting.
Nonpublic records. Account contact and security details, agreement-acceptance records, private collection and list data, import files and results, reports, support correspondence, and technical logs are not displayed to other users as public records. You can access your information through the account features provided or make a privacy request. Authorized administrators may access these records to operate the service, provide support, review content, or address security and legal matters.
Service providers. Providers supporting hosting, file storage, and email may process information needed to provide those services. Their access supports operation of RelicDB and is separate from public visibility settings.

Legal requirements and serious reports. We may disclose relevant information when the law requires it and, for serious reported content, to the relevant authorities. Reports and correspondence are not public posts; this does not prevent disclosures required by law or a legal process.

Marketplace listing images and affiliate links. When images from eBay listings load on RelicDB, your browser requests them directly from eBay's image servers. These requests may disclose your IP address, browser information, and the image requested to eBay, even if you do not click a listing. We configure these image requests not to send the address of the RelicDB page you are viewing.

Outbound eBay links are affiliate links and may include identifiers for RelicDB's affiliate campaign and the catalog item, allowing eBay to attribute purchases to RelicDB. eBay's handling of information it receives through image requests and your use of its services is described in its User Privacy Notice, including information about its use of cookies and similar technologies.

7. Retention and deletion

Deleting your account. You can delete your account from your profile settings or contact us for help. Account deletion removes your account profile and private collection, want-list, list, and collection-import records from our active database. It also removes the direct association between your account and your catalog contributions and uploaded catalog images. Associated profile and collection-import files are deleted separately through background processing.

Information that may remain. Account deletion does not automatically erase catalog entries or images, contribution history (including drafts and rejected or withdrawn submissions), problem reports, or technical logs. Personal information included in notes, citations, image credits, report text, or report metadata such as IP addresses may remain in those records. Removing an account association does not by itself make these records anonymous.

Privacy requests. You can request a copy of your personal data or ask us to correct or remove personal information, including information in retained records. You do not need a RelicDB account to make a request, and account holders do not need to delete their account first. If a catalog record describes or depicts you, identify the relevant page and explain the correction or privacy concern. Contact us to make a request. These requests are handled manually, and we may ask for information reasonably needed to verify your identity. We review requests under applicable law and respond within the time it requires. Where information is retained, we explain the reason and any applicable options to challenge that decision. Preserving catalog history does not override your legal rights to have personal information removed.

Retention and backups. Any continued retention of personal information must have a lawful purpose. Relevant considerations include maintaining catalog integrity, investigating abuse, meeting legal obligations, and establishing, exercising, or defending legal claims; these are not blanket exceptions to deletion rights. Deletion from the active database does not necessarily remove copies immediately from backups. When handling a deletion request, we explain any applicable retention exceptions and how information in backups will be handled, including when it is expected to be removed.

8. Children

RelicDB is not directed at children under 13 and we don't knowingly collect their data. You must be at least 13 years old to use RelicDB.

9. Changes

Material changes to this policy will be dated at the top of this page and, where required, you'll be asked to accept them on your next sign-in.

10. Contact

Privacy questions and requests: contact us.